The last deadline

CINCINNATI — A lively and influential voice in the Cincinnati region for more than a century already is a ghost of its former self, as the final deadline looms for the Post.

Daily circulation less than a tenth of its peak numbers, newsroom staff less than a third of its former size, the afternoon newspaper that once dispatched reporters to cover Hurricane Andrew’s devastation in Florida, the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska and the collapse of the Soviet Union now struggles to cover the city and northern Kentucky communities it helped change.

With the Cincinnati Post and its sister Kentucky Post set to close Dec. 31, the some 50 remaining employees carry out their usual work while also deciding what to toss and what to take. Stacks of packing boxes grow.

“It’s starting to hit home a little more now,” said Luke Saladin, a Post reporter for nearly seven years. “But people knew it was coming. To me, the Post that people have historically known has already been gone for a few years.”

The Post had increasingly looked like a journalistic Alamo battling powerful trends: first, the rise of the suburbs and changing lifestyles that pulled readers away from afternoon newspapers, then the rapid expansion of television news, and the Internet age that offers myriad sources for information and new advertising outlets. Owner E.W. Scripps Co. two years ago closed the Birmingham (Ala.) Post-Herald and has said it will close the Albuquerque Tribune if it can’t be sold.

As recently as 1960, the Post’s daily circulation was more than 270,000 and the nation had 1,459 afternoon newspapers. That was down to 614 by 2006, according to trade publication Editor & Publisher, and Post weekday circulation is about 27,000. Multiple newspapers in U.S. cities have also been disappearing. Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio’s two larger cities, lost an afternoon paper decades ago.

“It’s the relatively rare community that does have two papers anymore,” said Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst with the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla. Joint operating agreements under the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970, which allow newspapers to merge business operations when one is facing financial failure, have only slowed the trends.

Gannett Co., which owns the Cincinnati Enquirer, notified the Post three years ago it would not renew their 1977 agreement when it expired Dec. 31. For Scripps, there was study of possible ways to keep a daily newspaper in the media company’s corporate home, then a decision it wasn’t financially feasible.

“It had to come down to what’s realistic,” said Rich Boehne, a former Post reporter who’s now Scripps’ chief operating officer.

On July 17, Boehne walked the few blocks from his office to the Post to tell employees about Scripps’ decision.

“There was no surprise. It was just really sad that it was finally official,” Boehne said. “What you’re telling people is here is a definite date when you’ll lay down your arms and be done.”

For editor Mike Philipps, a 30-year Post veteran, a last mission is to go out in style with the Dec. 31 editions.

“The upside of knowing you’re going to die is you get to do some planning,” Philipps said. “The downside … is you get to do some planning.”